☢️ The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Chess Game in the Middle East as Bombing of Iran Begins

⚡ Nuclear Brinksmanship in the Trump Era: Playing Chicken with Armageddon. How diplomatic failures and military escalation bring us closer to catastrophe

Jun 13, 2025

😽 Keepin’ It Simple Summary for Younger Readers
👧🏾✊🏾👦🏾

🌍💥🚨 Israel just bombed Iran, and it's really scary because both countries have nuclear weapons—🧨💥 bombs so powerful they can destroy entire cities. Israel has something called the "Samson Option," 🏛️🧔‍♂️💪 which is basically a plan to use nuclear weapons if they think their country might be destroyed, named after a Bible story where a strong man brought down a whole building on himself and his enemies.

The problem is that if countries start using nuclear weapons, it could hurt millions of innocent people and make our planet very sick 🤒🌎. Even though this is happening far away, it's important for all of us because the same people who make these dangerous weapons also make decisions about our communities here 🚸🏢. The good news is that people everywhere are working together to stop nuclear weapons and build a safer world 🌍✌️ where conflicts get solved through talking, not bombing 🤝🗣️.

🗝️ Takeaways

🎯 Israel launched strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities on June 13, 2025, escalating tensions to dangerous new levels while U.S.-Iran nuclear negotiations were ongoing
☢️ The "Samson Option" is Israel's nuclear doctrine of massive retaliation that threatens mutual destruction if Israel faces existential defeat
🌍 Nuclear threats abroad connect to militarization at home, as the same imperial logic that normalizes nuclear brinksmanship also militarizes our borders and communities
⚖️ Double standards in nuclear policy allow some nations to develop arsenals while sanctioning others, exposing the hypocrisy of non-proliferation efforts
🤝 Resistance movements must build solidarity across borders to challenge the military-industrial complex that fuels both nuclear weapons and climate destruction
🏃‍♀️ Action is needed now through nuclear abolition advocacy, divestment campaigns, and supporting independent media that tells untold stories

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Israel Strikes Iran: Nuclear Shadows Over Our Borderlands

By Three Sonorans

Here we are again. Another morning in the frontera, another day of watching the empire flex its nuclear muscles while our communities struggle for water, healthcare, and dignity.

As I write this from the Sonoran Desert, where the saguaros stand witness to another chapter in humanity's endless capacity for violence, Israel has launched strikes on Iran, targeting what they claim are nuclear facilities and military installations.

The explosions echoing through Tehran this morning aren't just about Middle Eastern geopolitics—they're about the same imperial logic that militarizes our border, that turns our desert into a graveyard, that threatens our tierra sagrada with nuclear waste and military bases. When nuclear powers flex their muscles, it's our communities—Indigenous, Chicano, Black, immigrant—who bear the brunt of the fallout, literal and metaphorical.

What Happened: The Latest Escalation

According to NBC News, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed that Israel launched "a targeted military operation to roll back the Iranian threat" early Friday morning, local time. TIME reported that explosions were captured in images and videos from Tehran, with Israeli officials claiming they targeted "dozens" of nuclear and military targets.

The timing is no coincidence, compadres.

This strike comes as Trump's administration has been conducting negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program—talks that were supposed to happen this Sunday in Oman. CNN reported weeks ago that U.S. intelligence had obtained information suggesting Israel was preparing to strike Iranian nuclear facilities, even as diplomatic efforts continued.

The Samson Option: When "Never Again" Becomes "Everyone Dies"

To understand the gravity of this moment, we need to talk about something most media won't touch: Israel's "Samson Option." Named after the biblical figure who brought down the temple on himself and his enemies, this is Israel's nuclear doctrine of massive retaliation—a last-resort strategy that threatens to take everyone down if Israel faces what it perceives as existential defeat.

The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy - Kindle edition by Hersh, Seymour M.. Politics & Social Sciences Kindle eBooks @ Amazon.com.

The Samson Option, as detailed in Seymour Hersh's groundbreaking 1991 book, refers to Israel's strategy of overwhelming nuclear retaliation against non-nuclear adversaries if the country faces an imminent, existential threat.

Unlike the Cold War doctrine of Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD), which was designed to prevent nuclear powers from attacking each other, the Samson Option specifically targets Israel's non-nuclear opponents with the threat of nuclear annihilation.

As The Progressive reported, this doctrine "is not designed to deter a nuclear adversary from a first strike or counter strike—Israel is the only nuclear-armed state in the region. Rather, its purported purpose is to ensure Israel's survival. Under the Samson Option, nuclear weapons would be deliberately used against a non-nuclear adversary as a last resort to prevent an Israeli defeat."

The implications are chilling. We're talking about a doctrine that, in the words of the biblical Samson, declares "Let me die with the Philistines"—a murder-suicide pact that could drag the entire region, and possibly the world, into nuclear winter.

Historical Context: When Nuclear Blackmail Works

This isn't theoretical.

According to Hersh's research, Israel has already used nuclear threats to coerce U.S. action. During the 1973 Yom Kippur War, when Arab forces were overwhelming Israeli positions, Prime Minister Golda Meir authorized a nuclear alert and ordered 13 atomic bombs to be readied. The Israeli Ambassador reportedly told President Nixon that "very serious conclusions" would occur if the U.S. didn't airlift military supplies immediately.

Nixon complied. The nuclear blackmail worked.

The Strategic Vision Institute notes that even earlier, before the 1967 Six-Day War, Israel had planned to insert paratroopers into the Sinai to set up and detonate a nuclear bomb on a mountaintop as a warning to surrounding states. The war ended too quickly for the plan to be implemented, but the intention was clear.

The Borderlands Connection: Why This Matters to Us

Pues, you might be asking, what does this have to do with us here in the borderlands? ¡Órale! Everything, carnales. The same imperial logic that normalizes nuclear threats in the Middle East is what militarizes our border, what turns our desert into a laboratory for surveillance technology, what makes our communities sacrifice zones for military contractors and nuclear waste.

When nuclear powers engage in brinksmanship, it's not the politicians in their bunkers who suffer—it's working-class communities, Indigenous peoples, immigrants, and the global poor who bear the consequences. Every dollar spent on nuclear weapons is a dollar not spent on clean water, healthcare, education, or climate adaptation.

Here in Arizona, we know about nuclear colonialism. We've seen what uranium mining did to Navajo communities. We've watched as Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station—the largest nuclear power plant in the U.S.—sits in our backyard while our communities lack basic infrastructure. We understand that nuclear power, whether for "peaceful" purposes or weapons, is inherently violent.

Trump's Dangerous Game

The current escalation comes as Trump's administration plays a dangerous game of nuclear diplomacy. The Washington Post reported that Trump has been pursuing negotiations with Iran while simultaneously giving Israel a green light for military action.

It's classic Trump: create chaos, claim credit for any positive outcomes, blame others for disasters.

But here's what's particularly disturbing: U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has made clear that while the U.S. wasn't involved in today's strikes, America has "taken all necessary steps to protect our forces and remain in close contact with our regional partners." Translation: We're enabling this escalation while pretending we're not responsible.

Meanwhile, Al Jazeera reports that Iranian officials have warned all U.S. military bases in the region are "legitimate targets" if conflict breaks out. We're watching a slow-motion train wreck where any miscalculation could lead to a regional or global catastrophe.

The Real Victims: Always the People

As someone who's spent years documenting the impacts of militarization on borderland communities, I can tell you who really pays the price for these imperial games: It's the Palestinian families in Gaza who've endured over a year of genocidal bombing. It's the Iranian civilians who will suffer from sanctions and military strikes. It's the Israeli families who live in fear of retaliation. It's the Syrian, Lebanese, and Yemeni communities caught in the crossfire of proxy wars.

And yes, it's us—the communities here in the borderlands who watch our tax dollars fund weapons of mass destruction while our schools crumble, our healthcare systems fail, and our planet burns.

Nuclear Proliferation: The Failed Promise

The current crisis exposes the fundamental hypocrisy of nuclear non-proliferation efforts. Israel is believed to possess between 75-400 nuclear weapons, yet it's never been held accountable for its nuclear program. Meanwhile, Iran—which has consistently maintained its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes—faces crippling sanctions and military threats.

This double standard isn't just about Middle Eastern politics. It's about who gets to have ultimate power and who doesn't. It's about the same logic that allows the U.S. to maintain the world's largest nuclear arsenal while lecturing other countries about proliferation.

The Samson Option in Practice: Current Implications

What makes today's escalation particularly dangerous is how it might trigger the Samson Option doctrine. The Modern War Institute at West Point notes that "any such doctrine could reasonably enter into force only where the responsible aggressions had first credibly threatened Israel's physical existence."

But here's the terrifying question: Who decides what constitutes an "existential threat"? If Iran retaliates for today's strikes, will Israel interpret that as justification for nuclear response? If Hezbollah launches rockets from Lebanon, does that trigger Samson?

The doctrine's ambiguity is intentional—it's designed to keep Israel's enemies guessing. But ambiguity becomes dangerous when it involves weapons that could kill millions and trigger a global nuclear winter.

Climate Change and Nuclear War: The Ultimate Threat Multiplier

As an Indigenous person whose ancestors have lived in this desert for thousands of years, I can't separate the nuclear threat from the climate crisis. Both represent existential threats to human survival, and both are products of the same colonial, capitalist logic that treats the earth as a resource to be exploited and people as expendable.

Nuclear war would be the ultimate climate catastrophe. Even a "limited" nuclear exchange between Israel and Iran could trigger a nuclear winter that would disrupt global agriculture, cause mass starvation, and accelerate climate breakdown. The same communities already most vulnerable to climate change—Indigenous peoples, communities of color, the global poor—would suffer most.

What This Means for Resistance Movements

For those of us in movements for justice, this escalation is a reminder that our struggles are interconnected. The same military-industrial complex that bombs Iran also militarizes our border. The same imperial logic that threatens nuclear war also fuels climate destruction, Indigenous genocide, and racial oppression.

We can't fight climate change without confronting militarism. We can't achieve immigration justice without challenging the U.S. empire. We can't build Indigenous sovereignty without dismantling the colonial structures that enable nuclear colonialism.

A Note of Hope: The Power of Solidarity

But here's what gives me hope, raza: Every day, I see communities organizing across borders, building solidarity between Palestinian and Indigenous struggles, connecting fights for immigrant rights with movements for nuclear abolition. The same spirit that built the Sanctuary Movement in the 1980s, that created the Environmental Justice Movement, that's fighting for Indigenous water rights—that spirit is alive and growing.

From the Sonoran Desert to the West Bank, from the Rio Grande to the Persian Gulf, people are organizing for a different world. A world where conflicts are resolved through dialogue, not destruction. Where resources go to healing communities, not building weapons. Where the sacred is protected, not exploited.

How to Get Involved: Building the World We Need

The nuclear threat requires all of us to step up. Here's how we can build the movement for nuclear abolition and global justice:

Support Nuclear Abolition: Contact your representatives to demand U.S. ratification of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. Support organizations like Nuclear Age Peace Foundation and International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons.
Divest from Weapons: Push your university, pension fund, and local government to divest from nuclear weapons contractors. Money talks, and we can make it speak for peace.
Build Solidarity: Connect with Palestinian solidarity organizations, Indigenous rights groups, and immigrant justice movements. Our struggles are interconnected—our solutions must be too.
Educate Yourself and Others: Read Seymour Hersh's "The Samson Option," learn about nuclear colonialism, understand how the military-industrial complex operates. Knowledge is power.
Support Independent Media: Subscribe to Three Sonorans Substack and other independent outlets that tell the stories mainstream media won't touch. We need media that serves communities, not corporations.
Local Action: Fight militarization in your own backyard. Oppose military bases, nuclear facilities, and weapons testing. Demand your tax dollars fund schools and hospitals, not bombs.
Vote and Organize: Support candidates who prioritize diplomacy over warfare, who understand that true security comes from meeting people's needs, not building more weapons.

The path forward isn't easy, but it's clear. We must choose between the logic of Samson—mutual destruction—and the logic of Buen Vivir—living well in harmony with each other and the earth.

The choice is ours. The time is now.

¡La lucha sigue!

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Three Sonorans is an Indigenous Chicano writer and activist living in the borderlands of Southern Arizona. Follow their work at threesonorans.substack.com for more analysis connecting global struggles to local resistance.